Framed Art the Inexpensive Way

Framed art needn’t cost the earth. In fact framed artworks can be very inexpensive way when you allow yourself to reconsider exactly what constitutes a frame and, indeed what determines art .

First of all, one must reconsider the nature of art and its role in our daily lives. As an Art Director of Urban Fine Arts which is a contemporary framed art company I hold what is perhaps nowadays a slightly out of vogue opinion on the nature of art for somebody in my position. That is, I do believe that art should be beautiful (even if it’s only a face that mother could love) and I do also believe that art should be in some way “framed” and we shall also reconsider here in a moment exactly what “framed” means.

In-keeping with the popular trend, I don’t believe that art should necessarily demonstrate a significant degree of skill in the making and neither do I believe that art need be some high-brow, sacred thing nor that it even need be recognised as art – however, as I say, I do think that art should be beautiful. Its an opinion that has occasionally put me at odds with many of my peers, but its a belief that I would like to argue for in this article and maybe entice you to recognise the art that exists all around you (yes even within the room in which you sit right now) and encourage you to “frame” the artworks so as to appreciate their beauty and just maybe even stretch your notion of beauty that little bit further.

It’s been said that “truth, like beauty, is very much in the eye of the beholder” and those of you familiar with this post modern paradigm will also appreciate that any definition of art can be equally subjective.

As an undergraduate I was subjected to the, now standard, induction for all art students which sought to deconstruct the “popular myth” of art as our lecturers saw it. We were told that there existed no rigorous definition of art beyond merely describing it as “that which we understand as art ” or “that which hangs in a gallery”. Every “popular myth” of art , we were told, had so many exceptions to it so as to prohibit its validity.

Of course, there are many things which our society recognises as art that are neither beautiful nor could we argue that they involved a significant degree of skill on the part of the artist. On famous example is Marcel Duchamp’s installation of an upturned urinal entitled “Fountain” which is not something that many of us in layman’s-land would recognise as art were we not told that it is art and were we not to find it in an art gallery labelled as such. And yet, Duchamp’s Fountain is considered a seminal work of the early 20th Century.

So, am I now trying to persuade you that your toilet is art and that your toilet seat is the frame? No, not because I don’t believe that your humble loo is framed art (that’s for you to decide), but because I don’t believe that intellectual persuasion towards a doctrine of art is ethical or fruitful.

It appears to me futile to argue for a definition of art or seek to produce a litmus test for recognising it. However, I do think that there is some value at least in challenging people’s idea of what is art and encouraging people to frame the art all around you.

Rather than bore you with an intense argument on this subject I will merely provide an example for you to consider.

An art dealer friend of mine through whose hands have passed works of art worth six figures has upon his study wall, not a great work by a recognised master but a worthless looking paper invoice from his water cooler supplier firm. The invoice would be nothing above the ordinary to any casual viewer and its place upon his wall would at first seem bizarre. However, what is significant to him about this particular invoice is that the seemingly random system regenerated number of that particular invoice is the exact date of his daughter’s birthday. Add to this that the company happens to be called Gemini which is his daughter’s Christian name. The logo for the company is an image of a young girl holding a star in her outstretched hands. The invoice is attached to a pencil crayon drawing his daughter did at school based on a poem the teacher had read to them in class about God. The picture she has drawn is of a star in an outstretched hand with the words written underneath “He holds my world in His hands”.

Nothing but a chain of happy coincidence you might say. And, of course, these details are only of significance to him. However, when, as in this case, the object holds huge significance for an individual it becomes as wealthy and significant as any great artwork in any gallery. And when that art is framed within the context of something else we cherish (in this case the child’s artwork) the work becomes art purely by the framing and yet the irony is that we only framed it because we first recognised it as art .